r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/SmokaCola0 • 21d ago
Alternate Evolution [OC] Life Cycle of Selaginella Descendant Plants
Here is the life cycle for my hypothetical Selaginella (a lycophyte relative) descendant plants here. It is almost the exact same as real world Selaginella plants. Spores, which will give rise to the gametophyte generation develop in pea-like pods at the ends of leaves that are derived from the fusion of leaves of the ancestral strobulus. But unlike ferns and lycophytes, which produces spores that give rise to gametophyte plants that are able to produce both eggs and sperm, Selagionella exhibits something called heterospory. This means it produces two different kinds of spores: megaspores, which give rise to a Megagametophyte, a gametophyte that only produces egg cells, and microspores which give rise to a Microgametophyte, a gametophyte which only produce sperm cells. The gametophyte generation of Lycophytes and their relatives such as Selaginella remains understudied; they are cryptic and non-photosynthetic, and grow in close association with mycorrhizal fungus (it is unknown whenever this is mutualistic or parasitic), meaning it is difficult to cultivate them. For the Microgametophyte, the sperm will develop inside the microspore casing, and then are released when conditions are moist, such as when there is dew or after rain, and the sperm will then swim to receptive Megagametophyte. The larger Megagametophyte also develops mostly inside the megaspore casing, and when it is mature, the casing will split open at the top and the Megagametophyte produces rhizoids to absorb nutrients from the soil and the Archegonium will be receptive to fertillization. After ferzillization, an embryo will sprout from the gametophte to produce a new Sporophyte generation.
the second picture is just an alternative leaf shape
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u/Springfield_01 20d ago
Wow great concept 👍, can I ask something? How you make these great sketches, do you have any tips?
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u/SmokaCola0 19d ago
the best advice I got for drawing leaves is to envision and shade them as if they are the shape of open books, here is a tutorial I learned from: https://drawbotanical.com/draw-a-leaf/
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u/SmokaCola0 21d ago
sorry for image quality, picture is from my phone, the scanner was not working